City attorney's office starts probe into hospital's sale of x-ray films

Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday announced that the city attorney's office has started investigating, upon his orders, the alleged irregularities in the city-owned hospital about unauthorized selling of used x-ray films from the medical files to still unidentified scrap buyers.

"The matter is now referred to the city attorney's office for investigation. The head of the hospital and down to its level will be included in the investigation," Osmeña said.

The mayor earlier ordered a probe on the matter and on officials of the Cebu City Medical Center from its director, Dr Myrna Go, down to her staff.

The order for investigation came after Osmeña learned about a complaint filed at the Ombudsman-Visayas alleging that some hospital personnel have been illegally selling x-ray films that are still being kept as medical records, usually through a five-year period.

The still unnamed complainant alleged that the sale has been lucrative with net proceeds reaching as high as P80,000, and that some of these films sold were part of pending medico-legal cases in the judiciary.

City hall consultant Nestor Alonso, in an earlier spot check at the hospital found out that some x-ray films were missing from the medical files of the hospital but the manner of their disappearance or, if ever sold, the process of disposing them were still "very unclear."

Osmeña said the manner of selling the X-ray films has not been determined yet because these were sold without receipts. "During the spot-checking, there were missing X-ray plates," Osmeña said, adding that he was bothered about Dr. Go's failure to probe this matter at her level since.

The hospital director actually sent a memorandum to the radiation department about the matter but Osmeña asked: "Where is now the explanation and validation of the explanation? I don't even receive a copy if there is any."

Councilor Christopher Alix, hospital services committee chairman, said some hospital personnel have been selling used x-ray films, a practice that he said has not been allowed in the hospital.

There were unverified reports before that used x-ray films had been sold to pawnshops or florists allegedly by one of the doctors and a secretary, said Alix. He said that when he heard complaints of such nature, he asked hospital officials about it but there were no responses ever since. Councilor Edgardo Labella, for his part, said however that such kind of sale may not be irregular because is might be done in line with the hospital's system of disposing its unusable supplies and materials. - Garry B. Lao/RAE